Citizenship, Identity and Historical References in the European Union

When assessing the role of European citizenship in the context of the 27 odd national sovereignstates we have to approach the idea of citizenship from two different angles, which are connected 1. historically and 2. objectively, i.e. legally and politically. Theseconnections revolve around the ideas of nationhood and nationality. Wewill argue that someone’s objective legal identity and subjective feeling of identity are closely linked but not the same, and may even result in contrarious expectations and actions. We will also argue that the idea of European Citizenship may be thwarted by national citizenship feelings. But we will also indicate that many national problems caused by phenomena of globalization, like the treatment ofethnic minorities, immigration, refuge, and economic traffic may be more easily solved by taking European legal arrangements and the dejure right of European citizenship as starting point for discussions and arrangements. When, finally, planning research into the ideas of European and national citizenship we should reckon with the multi-dimensional and multi-faceted character of the concept, particularly when we perform comparative research all over the European Union.